Planet Jackers
"Planet Jackers" is the 1st segment in the 7th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on August 31, 2001, on Nickelodeon. Plot Summary Zim is using his telescope to see how far the other Irken Invaders have progressed with their missions and much to his shock and annoyance he finds out that his peers are farther along conquering their assigned planets than he is. Suddenly, his view is blinded by interference and he naturally assumes that GIR has somehow damaged his equipment again. However, when GIR proves innocent, the Irken begins to worry. Zim is still thinking about this new development when an earthquake causes his telescope to fall from the ceiling completely, and break. He then goes to the city hilltop to find another telescope, when GIR suggests to use the telescope that they see in Dib's backyard. Even thought he doesn't want to because it belongs to Dib, Zim still goes to Dib's house and requests that he use his telescope. Dib, of course doesn't trust him and ultimately sends him away, so Zim is forced to go out and investigate with his ship. Zim and GIR soon discover that Earth and its Moon have been hijacked by the Planet Jackers, an alien race who fuel their dying sun with planets in order to keep their homeworld alive. They do this by encasing Earth in a vast, metal bubble and (to keep the more dominant life forms from noticing their capture) project an image of the sky on the inside. Zim quickly begins to formulate a plan to stop the Planet Jackers - not because he wishes to save Earth, of course, but because he wishes to destroy Earth himself, thus proving himself to The Tallest as a capable Invader. At first, he tries speaking to the Planet Jackers, Nik and Oog-Ah, about the Irken-Planet Jacker Treaty, which states that all planets marked for conquest by the Irken Armada are to be left where they are. However, since Earth was not marked, (because Zim's mission was fake, and The Tallest hold no value over Earth) the Planet Jackers refuse to let Earth go, and attack Zim's ship. The Irken then resorts to Plan B: Take the planet back by force, but loses badly, in a fight over the key to the metal bubble encasing the Earth. The last scheme Zim tries is to use the Voot's pod lasers to cut through the shell, and battle the Planet Jackers to distract them. This plan seems to work as the Planet Jackers throw an empty shell into their sun while the Earth is safe once more, leaving Zim free to conquer it. Facts of Doom Cultural References *The Planet Jackers are based on the characters Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud from the film Fargo. **The first scene to show the Planet Jackers is a parody of the infamous "Total Silence" scene from the movie. Trivia * At one point, Irken writing is seen on the screen as Zim is reading information on a monitor. The text on the bottom left, however, in the final console screen has what looks vaguely like a pair of smilies waving. *In this episode, it's revealed that the Voot's pods are detachable and have lasers. *This is the first time Zim saved the Earth. The second is in "Hamstergeddon", the third is in "Lice", the fourth was in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", the fifth would have been in "Invader Poonchy", the sixth would have been in "Squishy: Hugger of Worlds", and the seventh and ultimate time would have been "Invader Dib". **This is also the first time he showed concern for the planet, albeit for the sake of Irken interests. *Ironically by refusing to listen to Zim, Dib may have unintentionally helped doom the Earth because they were wasting crucial time arguing. *The Almighty Tallest aren't seen but were mentioned by Zim. *This is also the first time we see Zim in his space suit. The other times this happens is in "Battle of the Planets" and later in Issue 9. *Also, when the Voot crashes, Zim's eye is knocked out of his socket, but he's capable of pushing it back in. This may be due to the fact that the Irken body is more flexible and resilient than that of a human. However, it's also possibly due to the fact that Irken eyes contain ocular implants, a fact has not been proven since Zim stated it in "Walk of Doom". *While Gaz isn't seen, she can be heard in the background. Similar to "Battle of the Planets". This is the fourth time she isn't physically seen. *Despite the fact that the Irken Empire didn't know about Earth until Zim discovered it, the Planet Jackers seemed to have been aware of its existence considering it was on their map. *In real life, throwing a planet into a star is like pouring alcohol into a campfire. It makes the fire burn bigger for a short period of time, but it makes the lifespan of the fire itself shorter. But since no one knew this back in 2001, we can't exactly judge Jhonen Vasquez for this. *This is one of Richard Steven Horvitz's favorite episodes along with "Walk of Doom".An Interview with Richard Horvitz, the voice of Invader Zim at The Good Men Project Things you Might Have Missed *When Zim is saying "Imagine the Irken army showing up and the entire planet is missing!", if you notice he has four fingers rather than the standard three Irkens usually have. *As Zim is saying "The Tallest will kill me for sure!", you can see GIR being distracted by a shooting star outside the window. *When the Voot Cruiser is accelerating rapidly to the sky, just before it shows Zim and GIR being pressed against their seat, you can see the grid of the giant television screen rushing up to meet them. *When Zim targets the striped planet that Invader Skutch is on, a Bloody GIR is seen on the top right corner of the planet. *At the end of the episode, Nik sees the side-view mirror and his expression implies that he saw Earth being freed from its metal shell by Zim. Yet, he laughs alongside Oog-Ah at "another job well done", hinting that other planets they jacked may have already been thrown into their sun. Inconsistencies and Animation Errors *When Dib opens the door and finds Zim, Zim's eyes turn green for a moment. *When Zim's Voot Cruiser crashes on the giant TV screen, GIR's eyes change color from blue-green, to green, to blue-green. *In the scene where we see the enclosed Earth, the moon is shown much smaller than it should be. See also *Planet Jackers (Transcript) *Planet Jackers/Screenshots References es:Ladrones de planetas Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes Category:Screenshots